1. Field
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to the modification of service capability to support simultaneous reception of services.
2. Background
In a wireless communication system, mobile stations, also known as user equipment (UE), may communicate using dedicated communication services. These dedicated communication services provide two-way communication between UE and a wireless network system. The dedicated communication services may occur at various transmission rates that are either defined or negotiated at some point in time after the UE is recognized in the system. Another commonly available communication service for sharing information in a one-to-many type arrangement has come to be known generally as a broadcast service. One of the commonly defined and accepted broadcast communication services is known as the Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS).
Simultaneous support for a dedicated service (e.g., packet data or voice) and MBMS in a single UE has been nominally defined. A UE with the capacity to support simultaneous dedicated services (voice calls, PS data, etc.) and MBMS will necessarily have some limitations on the level of services it can simultaneously support. At a minimum, the UE Radio Access Capabilities requirement specifies that a UE be able to support a dedicated service of 64 kbps downlink data rate in parallel with reception of an MBMS. (See 3GPP Technical Specification 25.306.)
However, beyond this minimum benchmark, there are no defined levels of support—thus, for instance, even if a UE can support 384 kbps together with MBMS, there is no mechanism such as defined UE classes by which this support can be indicated to the network. Furthermore, conflict resolution of available services that exceed the UE capability have been limited to very general “service prioritization” procedures for maintaining and supporting only a single one of the services by releasing the other service. (See Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification of 3GPP Technical Specification 25.331.)
Therefore, there is a need for a UE to determine the available competing service requirements and to manage utilization of these services within the UE in view of the available capabilities of the UE.